What Dad really wants for Father’s Day

It’s Sunday, June 16 in case you forgot to write it down or circle that on the calendar. And again, the puzzle of what to buy for dear old Dad arises.

Men are notoriously hard to buy for. If they have a hobby, they’ve probably already bought all the toys they really want. That is, unless there’s one toy they’ve been wanting they’ve deemed to pricey or too hard to find and you’ve already been saving up and have that under control. In that case, lucky you!

Buying clothes for Dad can be treacherous because they seem to get in a rut and buy the same things over and over. If you venture out into the “something different” area, you run the risk of another trip back to the store for a return, or worse, seeing it in the closet never worn. Money wasted.

If you Google “What dad really wants for Father’s Day” the answers will differ depending on what kind of site you land on. Even one that seems to be a survey source seems to indicate Dad would love a retro video game, brightly colored sneakers ($130), a cool patterned iPhone case, etc. Maybe, but I think these items are the kind that Dad would have had to specifically point out to the family at a store. I wouldn’t take a chance on any of them.

Business News Daily said women think the gift dads want most is tickets to a sporting event, but what they really want is a smart phone or pad/tablet. And sex. In my opinion, this might be closer to the truth.

But among the many web blogs written by dads there’s one chorus that seems to stand out: What dads really want most for Father’s Day is nothing.

And plenty of it.

That nothing would include family time doing whatever strikes dad’s fancy: A good, home-cooked meal or a special meal at a place he really, really likes, eating the food he really, really likes, and more nothing.

That’s a pretty good gift if you ask me, but somehow we feel it’s not special enough. Maybe we get him the iPad and then plenty of nothing time to enjoy it?